An Alternative Music Site

November 3, 2017November 2, 2017

[PREMIERE] Math and Physics Club – All The Mains Are Down

Originally formed back in the mid-1990s, Math and Physics Club are a group of musicians dotted across the Pacific Northwest. They first burst into the public conscience with their 2005 EP, Weekends Away, and have since gone on to release three studio albums, and even managed a career retrospective, in the shape of last year’s b-sides and rarities compilation, In This Together. While parenthood and time, may have nabbed a couple of members along the way, the band continue to remain highly productive, and are set to return next year with their fourth album Lived Here Before. Today we’re premiering the first single from that record, All The Mains Are Down.

Lived Here Before was concocted in an eleven day recording session with fabled grunge producer Chris Hanzek. The band relocating to the wilderness of Snohomish, Washington, their only company coming in the shape of, “Douglas firs and Swainson’s Thrushes”. Listening to, All The Mains Are Down, it’s not hard to imagine it coming from a place of rural idyll; lush, jangling guitars are cut through with lackadaisical vocals and latterly a, bright, upbeat flourish of almost barroom piano.

As ever with Math and Physics Club, beneath the bright and breezy Real Estate-like guitar work, lurks a darker edge. Lyrically, it seems to deal with an emotional cross road, a place, “where all the mains are down with communication overground, while you make up your mind, I make up mine”. A world where decisions are unclear, the correct path forward blurred and unsure. There’s a sense that Lived Here Before is a darker, more world-weary piece than the band are currently known for, reflective perhaps of the times in which the record was made. If this is the result of the band turning a mirror on the world, then they might just have made their most reflective, intriguing and exciting record yet.

Lived Here Before is out January 26th via Fika Recordings. Click HERE for more information on Math and Physics Club.